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(November 1, 2011) With LEGO NINJAGO® making Time to Play Magazine's 2011 "Most Wanted" toy list, the popularity of the toy is directly translating to an extraordinarily high demand for the debut of the LEGO NINJAGO® graphic novel series published by Papercutz. LEGO® NINJAG #1 “The Challenge of Samukai!” ($6.99, ages 6+) has experienced record demand this holiday season and Papercutz has responded with an unprecedented 190,000 copy first print run.

With a publication date of November 2011, LEGO® NINJAGO #1 “The Challenge of Samukai!" is a classic story of good versus evil starring little, and totally adorable LEGO® figures! Handpicked by the wise Master Sensei Wu, Kai, Cole, Zane and Jay band together and use “spinjitzu” to battle the evil skeleton warriors who threaten to take over the world of NINJAGO. The LEGO® NINJAGO graphic novels are written by Greg Farshtey, who penned the hugely successful BIONICLE® graphic novels, also based on a LEGO property. To date, Papercutz has sold over 250,000 copies of its BIONICLE line. Paulo Henrique, who has illustrated THE HARDY BOYS graphic novels from Papercutz, provides his trademark talent for creating expressive faces, flawless backgrounds and seamless action scenes.

NINJAGO is the current blockbuster toy line from LEGO that is being coveted and collected by children across the country. The ninja-themed playsets have spawned a made-for-TV movie, an upcoming TV series, a video game for the Nintendo DS system and an animated series is in the pipeline with Cartoon Network.

The next installment in the series, LEGO® NINJAGO #2 “Mask of the Sensei,” is due out February 28, 2012.